Personalities also slammed Moix, including journalist Colombe Schneck, who posted a picture of her buttocks (deleted on Instagram but reposted on Twitter) with the caption, “Voila, the buttocks of a woman aged 52…what an imbecile you are, you don’t know what you’re missing…”

French MP Olivia Gregoire, spokeswoman for President Emmanuel Macron’s La République en Marche (LREM) party, tweeted, “Very classy Yann Moix. Very very classy. But like stupidity and vulgarity have no age, it’s reassuring in his case as I doubt many women want [such qualities].”

﻿

Following the backlash, Moix spoke to French radio station RTL to defend his remarks, arguing that he was only being honest.

“I don’t see this as pride, but almost as a curse. It’s not my fault. We are not responsible for our tastes, our penchants, our inclinations. I’m not here to hold forth on this,”The Guardian quoted him as saying.

As such, Moix did not apologize for upsetting people.

“Every individual is a prisoner of their tastes. I’m a prisoner of mine. It takes nothing away from a woman of 50 years that I don’t want to sleep with her,” he said. “I’m not responsible for my tastes; I’m trying to be honest. Of course I have a problem, I’m an adolescent, I’m a child and I don’t interest women in their 50s either. They’ve got better things to do than to drag a neurotic around who spends his time yelling and reading and likes doing things that only excite children. It’s not easy to be with me.”